Detroit-based Seldom Blues L.L.C. has filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy, claiming more than $400,000 owed to food vendors, media companies and others among its debts.

The jazz restaurant and popular downtown meeting locale in Detroit's Renaissance Center claims more than 50 creditors and total liabilities between $500,001 and $1 million, in the case filed at U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Detroit. Also filing for bankruptcy the same day was Detroit Breakfast House & Grill L.L.C., another restaurant of Southern Hospitality Restaurant Group.
Wallace Handler, partner at Southfield-based Sullivan, Ward, Asher & Patton P.C. and lead attorney for the debtor in both bankruptcy cases, declined to elaborate
He deferred further comment to Michael Layne, partner at Farmington Hills-based public relations firm Marx Layne & Co., and spokesman for Seldom Blues.

Marx Layne is one of the restaurant's 20 largest unsecured creditors according to court documents filed by restaurant co-founder and managing partner Frank Taylor.

Both the downtown restaurant and Taylor's Detroit Breakfast House on Woodward Avenue north of Campus Martius will remain open during the bankruptcy, and the move simply serves to restructure some debt during a market downturn, Layne said.

“We certainly believe in the viability of Seldom Blues as a restaurant and in downtown Detroit as a dining desination,” Layne said.

“But this was foreseeable. When Seldom Blues first signed a lease five and a half years ago, GM had just completed a reorganization and RenCen was like a city unto itself. That city was really able to support a robust weekday lunch and dinner business. With the downsizing of GM, which obviously continues to this day, that has severely impacted business.”

The debtor claims it owes Marx Layne $35,767.21, second only to Hamtramck-based seafood wholesaler Northern Lakes Seafood & Meats, its largest creditor at $274,098.60.

Other creditors include:

• Sysco Food Services of Detroit L.L.C., $30,946.54.

• Chicago-based Pepsi-Cola, $2,247.61.

• Lansing-based Sohn Linen Services, $10,782.54.

• Riverfront Holdings , Detroit, $28,355.

• Royal Oak-based Hour Media L.L.C., $9,248.07.

• Royal Oak-based D Business, $1,363.82.

Restaurant general manager Bill Young told Crain's in July that volume at Seldom Blues was down at least 25 percent over the previous year, and the restaurant had developed promotion packages along with the Detroit Marriott Renaissance Center, and new affordable items to the menu as a way of stemming the trend.
Correction: Earlier versions of this story online left off the separate, yet related, bankruptcy by Detroit Breakfast House & Grill. This version contains the corrected information.